Garden Center Spending

June 9th, 2017 at 01:04 am

I always feel like I spend too much at the garden center. But speaking with my Mn girl friends last weekend, I think I'm being too tough on my budget. We have a big patio, a raised bed garden, several flower beds, and the front of the house to plant. There was hardly anything here when we moved in, and I've gradually added, divided, and added more--mostly perennials
But I like pots of flowers on the patio, at least two hanging baskets, and I'm forever fussing with the front. I tend to buy at least a flat of annuals, potting mix, and a few annuals along with more perennials. It does add up, but I usually buy small plants. I'm often a bit torn between patience/frugality and wanting instant garden gratification. That hit home today as I've torn out the vines that used to dominate our front planter box, determined to give it a bit more light and zing. I bought the smaller reduced price plants--but really wanted to buy the $10 size. I've started from seed in the past, but usually am so busy in the spring. I've also gratefully received divided plants from others, but still long for instant results. I guess I should be glad that after three years, my mailbox day lily and the snow on the mountain are finally fabulous. How much do you guys spend on yard/patio, etc?

3 Responses to “Garden Center Spending”

I did a quick look, and it seems I spent about $95 initially, maybe another $10 more on another trip. Most of this spending is for our garden. This is what I think we bought. Three eight packs of annual flowers, one eight pack of two large bags of garden soil, three or four bags of mulch, two tomato plants, snow pea seeds, romain lettuce seeds, two tomato cages, strawberry plant, two squash plants. We may have bought something else at the same time that I'm not remembering. My flowers are very minimal, but just enough pop of color to make me happy.

Give those smaller plants a bit of fertilizer in a couple weeks, and they will get bigger!

I've only got a landing outside my back door. I used to have flower boxes there, but it was too difficult to schlep the stuff up to my level. Now it's bare. I would like to put up a couple of lightweight hanging baskets, but I travel too much and the plants would suffer when I'm gone.